Very Much Alive

Sir: Who said God is dead and the Catholic Church is archaic and unprogressive? He and it are very much alive in every fiber of Dan and Phil Berrigan [Jan. 25] --in their courageous mad struggle for some kind of human decency!

ANNE T. PETRO

Northfield, Ohio

Sir: It is my feeling that the Berrigans are bogus on two counts. They claim to represent Christ, but in their insurrection they behave contrary to his teaching and example. They claim to be proponents of peace, but their conduct is riotous. They are hypocrites.

ROY A. DAVISON

Roeselare, Belgium

Sir: Hearty congratulations on a brilliant article on the Berrigans. Having been a member of the cast in the premiere presentation of Daniel's The Trial of the Catonsville Nine at the Mark Taper Forum in Los Angeles, I was one of many actors who finally found a "prophet." Daniel was still underground at the time of the presentation last summer, and the FBI harassment we as actors were forced to bear was perhaps ridiculous, if not downright unbelievable.

PETER STRAUSS

Los Angeles

Sir: To call the Berrigans prophets is a tragic copout. No extraordinary seers or saints, they are simply men who put us all to shame by their very human example of realistic courage, imagination and faith.

With no new knowledge or visions, they act out what every Christian could and should bs doing.

(MRS.) CAROLYN L. WHITTLE

Newtonville, Mass.

Sir: Shall we again, once again kill our prophets--and leave it to our children to decorate their tombs?

Let us, for once, just this once--hear me now--just this once, let us try decorating before we bury.

JOSEPH F.X. CONTE

Bergen, Norway

Sir: One day, not too far off, Philip Berrigan should be President of the United States. Here for once is a man who could be trusted with power, who has proved through his life that he has integrity of character and brains to govern. This would be the way out of your abysmal political mess, which makes millions of people unhappy and insecure.

And for good measure. Daniel Berrigan should be the next Pope. Amen.

ADDA RADUNZ

Vancouver, B.C.

Sir: "Christlike"--nuts! Thirteen pieces of silver to the Berrigans and Sister Lizzie.

(MRS.) MILDRED TULLY

Park Ridge, Ill.

Sir: From your article on these curious priests, I got the impression that you doubt their ability to do violence.

As I remember the draft board assaults, these men and their accomplices did do violence. They terrorized the personnel, committed arson, tore up property, poured blood around, and generally acted like hoodlums and vandals. I hold that violence, like virginity and pregnancy, is not subject to degree.

G. MANNING MEACHAM

Chattanooga, Tenn.

Sir: It seems that when Good Pope John XXIII opened the windows of the Catholic Church to let in fresh air, some of its clergy jumped out. The Berrigans must have landed on their heads.

RAYMOND M. ROBICHAUD

Laconia, N.H.

Baser Appetites

Sir: Thank you for your article entitled "The Shame of the Prisons" [Jan. 18].

Americans have not yet faced up to their grossly inconsistent practices concerning offenders. Vengeance and retribution feed our baser appetites, but the price in lives, property and taxes is immense. "Law-and-order" will come only as we develop policies and programs based on knowledge, rather than on sentiment.

JOSEPH R. PALMER, A.C.S.W.

Chairman, Parole Board

Adult Parole Authority

Columbus

Sir: "The Shame of the Prisons" is another example of the overwhelming permissiveness that pervades our entire society today. As a prosecutor whose jurisdiction includes the two main branches of the state prison system, 1 feel somewhat qualified to take issue with the ridiculous statements in your article.

If there is any deficiency in our penal system it is that too few criminals are locked up and that when they are imprisoned, they are treated with far too much consideration for the confinement to be a punishment.

MACK S. FUTCH

First Assistant State Attorney

Gainesville, Fla.

Too Big a Slice

Sir: TIME'S story on Cambodia, "Pinching the Arteries" [Jan. 25], has Admiral Thomas H. Moorer describing the situation as deteriorating, though not really critical; later in the story, you say that the Communists "are trying to carve out staging areas in the northeast." Yet your accompanying map shows the Communists in almost total control of the country, with only a tiny sliver around Phnom-Penh in government hands and another relatively small area rated as "disputed." Which is correct?

KEN BILLINGS

Dallas

> TIME'S map was based on incomplete information; the Communists do not control anywhere near so wide an area as pictured.

Service for Both

Sir: Having read a great deal on the plight of the Soviet Jews, I was impressed by the concise way you encompassed so many facts in a relatively short article [Jan. 25]. You have done a service for both the people who do not understand the problem and those of us who endeavor to explain it to them. Let us take a positive viewpoint and continue the "shouting." We have known the high cost of the "crime" of silence.

ROBERT HIRSCH

Vice Chairman

Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry

San Francisco

Sir: Strange as it may seem, phone calls to Russian Jews are not so difficult to place as one might think. The greatest difficulty is obtaining the telephone number, since there are no phone books or information operators in the Soviet Union.

Our organization and our affiliated group --the California Students for Soviet Jews --have placed numerous phone calls to Jews in the Soviet Union, and we have found the people willing and eager to talk openly about the oppression they live under and about their desire to emigrate.

Si FRUMKIN

Southern Council for Soviet Jews

Los Angeles

Sympathy Reserved

Sir: So Arville Garland has received only expressions of sympathy after murdering his daughter and her three friends [Jan. 25]. There are, however, some of us who are appalled by his act and who reserve our sympathy for his daughter.

Those of us who do not advocate the death penalty for fornication, who value life and love over death and hatred, quietly go about trying to help others, including daughters who have to continue living with disturbed men like Garland.

DAVID LESTER, PH.D.

Teen-age Hotline

Suicide-Prevention and Crisis Service

Buffalo

Sir: As a member of what is commonly called the younger generation, I have had my fill of being called a moral degenerate because of long hair, drugs, etc., by the likes of Mr. Arville Garland. If a person's life-style warrants his being murdered in his bed, then maybe there is justification for "Your truth is not truth; your values are without value."

WALLACE C. DEKLYN JR.

Rowayton, Conn.

Maybe We Did

Sir: Your article on the firing of John Burns [Jan. 25] strikes delicate nerves and makes us all shudder.

A long time ago, industries started throwing their wastes into our clean air and water. So pollution was spawned, and it grew bigger and bigger along with corporate profits.

Then along came Mr. Burns, who was forcing industries to clean up their own wastes. So what happened? He was fired.

It is too bloody bad that we did not have someone like Mr. Burns ten or 15 years ago--but maybe we did, and he was fired too.

RALPH R. DEBAISE

East Syracuse, N.Y.

A Modest Proposal

Sir: The amusing article on the proposal of Rhode Island's Bernard Gladstone to tax sexual intercourse [Jan. 25] is not original. Swift's Gulliver heard about such a proposal during his sojourn in Laputa: "The highest tax -was upon men who are the greatest favorites of the other sex, and the assessments according to the number and natures of the favors they have received; for which they are allowed to be their own vouchers."

WILLIAM D. ELLIS JR.

Jersey City

Sir: Although personally opposed to it because of the expense involved, I think State Legislator Gladstone's sex-tax proposal is an excellent idea for raising much needed revenue. Such a tax could easily be enforced by publishing locally the amount of tax paid each month by each man in the community. Even non-participants would probably, pay. After all, what virile American male would want to admit that he's not getting any action?

DAVID THIESSEN

Arlington Heights, Ill.

Sir: That's about as personal as a tax can get! Do you think the Women's Lib gals will insist on making it Dutch treat and pay their half?

KATHLEEN CLARK

Los Angeles

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